My Daughter's Drug Addiction is Sooo OUT of Control. The Whole Family Is at a Loss, What do we do?

by Erin W
(Center Morices, NY)

My daughter Christine is almost 23 years old, she is a heroin addict for almost 3 years. She has been in rehab 3 times, the last was this past May. The families insurance only gives 14 days. This time she used the very day she was released.

She was in jail in June due to possession and needles, she spent 30 days in there and came out and went right back to using. She shoots up heroin and cocaine. She overdosed week after being out of jail (that was her 7th time overdosing).

The family let her come and stay because she is homeless. We have an order of protection against her, we thought this might be kind of like tough love. She has stolen from us and lies all the time. Half the time we have no idea where she is until we get a call about an overdose. She just did again on Sept. 12, she did not go back to her court appearance on 9/9/11.

They arrested her on 9/10/11 because she didn't show up for sentencing. The family showed up for sentencing in hopes of maybe they would give her drug court or jail time. Not that the family wants her locked up, but we want her to be away from all the drugs.

My daughter graduated in the top of her class and had a full scholarship to college. She was involved in sports in school and outside of school. Gifted in science and math and in the later part of her senior year she was diagnosed with severe mood disorder. She was under psych. with doctor and having her meds changed when she decided to try heroin for the first time.

Now yesterday she was sentenced to 45 days but she already served 30 in June so she will be out in 15 days. She will be out to go back to all the drugs and whatever else, until she is successfully kills herself.

Alcoholism-and-Drug-Addiction-Help.com Answer

Hi Erin

The reality is that in cases of severe drug addiction, especially when someone is shooting up, like your daughter is heroin, there isn't much left you can do other than hope and pray something switches in your daughter's mind that will make her want to turn her life around.

She's spent time in rehab, time in prison ... and yet nothing has indicated that she wants to fight and try and overcome her heroin addiction. Because that's what it boils down to and why some make it and others don't ... having the will to live.

Hopefully your daughter hasn't lost that entirely and there is still some spark left inside her - so never give up hope entirely. The ideal would be somehow to get her in some kind of long-term drug/addiction treatment program ... 6 months to a year would be ideal. They do exist and maybe you can plead that the court orders her into one, because she's clearly at risk of killing herself with drugs.

That's the best chance she's got - literally being removed from society for an extended period of time where she can focus on getting well. So try and organise with the relevant authorities to make a condition of her release to get her into long-term treatment. That seems like the best chance she's got right now.